'My patience has limits but I won't quit BJP'

Mumbai: In another public outburst in a week, sulking BJP leader Eknath Khadse on Sunday said his patience has limits though he clarified that he had no inclination to quit the saffron party.

The former Revenue Minister, who resigned in the year 2016 on allegations of corruption and impropriety in a land deal, had recently said he should not be compelled to quit the BJP. "I have been meeting my party leaders, asking them to place facts about all allegations against me in the public domain at the earliest. If there is proof, put me in jail but the truth should come out," Khadse said.

The senior BJP leader also said he had not met the state leadership to make him minister again. "For the last 20 months (since he quit as minister), I remained quiet. There is a limit to my patience. I don't wish to quit the party with which I have a 40-year-old relation.

But if I am insulted and sidelined on the basis of frivolous charges then what I am supposed to do. What should I do if attempts are made to push me out of the party. Is discipline only for me?" Khadse asked.

Addressing a function in his home district Jalgaon, Khadse had said he should not be compelled to quit the BJP.

To a question regarding he sharing the dais with Congress leaders at the programme, Khadse played down the incident and said these were birthday functions of leaders from his district. "If (Chief Minister) Devendra Fadnavis can attend the birthday function of (NCP chief) Sharad Pawar, can't I go to birthday functions of leaders from my district?" he asked.

Khadse alleged that many development-related issues in Jalgaon district are being neglected and delayed.

"I have been pursuing the issues through correspondence with the concerned authorities. Should I now take the role of opposition leader despite being from the ruling dispensation?" he asked. Khadse's reentry in the state Cabinet has been delayed with Fadnavis telling the Legislative Assembly last year that the probe report of a judicial committee against Khadse had become infructuous after the Bombay High Court instructing the ACB to register an FIR in the matter.